30 Day Challenge - Day 20

Your favorite horse show.

I would have to say that my current favorite is the Inavale horse trials half star CIC event (at least I think that's what it's rated!). I have never had the opportunity to ride in it, but I hope to do so this year. It is pretty big and I went and watched last year and it looked super fun. A lot of people I know ride in it and the shopping's great too. I can't wait to get to participate in it this year!

30 Day Challenge - Day 19

A discipline you would like to try.

I've definitely already posted about this here, but I would love to try combined driving! It looks like sooo much fun.

There's only one CDE (combined driving event) that I know of locally and this year I really want to go watch it. My first real exposure to this event was at WEG. I had heard of it of course and had actually driven horses before, but never had I experienced anything this awesome.

Combined driving is like 3 Day Eventing but with carts attached. I can't stress how much fun it looks. I know that you can have one horse and driver, or you can do four-in-a-hand, but that may just be something more for the upper levels (?). Someday I am going to get a cart and harness and train whatever current horse I have to do combined driving. Whether they like it or not! Lol. I still think Jazz would do well at this, but we never really progressed past ground driving because I didn't want to spend probably around $1000 or more on driving gear. Someday though...

There are three parts to combined driving - the cones course, dressage, and marathon. One of the things that I love about this sport is that you can seriously be competitive with any breed or crossbreed of horse. At WEG I saw Friesian/QH crosses, Perchron/TB crosses, Dutch Harness horses, Thoroughbred type and Warmblood type horses.

Here's some pictures. The first three I took and the others are from online.



Looks pretty awesome, huh?



30 Day Challenge - Day 18

Your favorite horse show picture.

Ok, this is the newly edited version. Here's my favorite picture from a horse show.

Sorry, it's a picture of a picture, but it's clear enough. This was one of the very few shows that I did with Grady, and even fewer still when I rode him english. He was so fantastic for that show and we did very well in both pleasure and equitation. I love my boy!

30 Day Challenge - Day 17

Your equestrian idol.

Hmm... This is a tough one for me. I don't really follow that many "big name" riders that closely so I can't tell you if there's one that really sticks out for me.

But, there is a local trainer though has to be my current idol. She goes by JF here on the blog and she's just so amazing. I've been taking lessons with her for about 4 years and she is amazingly supportive. She rides western only but also does classical dressage (in a western saddle). She taught me even more about training horses and starting babies than I had already known when I met her. JF introduced me to competitive trail - she hosts several shows at her barn every year and has also hauled me to other trail shows. We share the same love of going galloping on the beach and try to do so as much as possible over the summer. She's just altogether awesome :)


JF competing in a timed trail competiton.

Almost every summer for the past three years I've gone and stayed with her for at least a couple weeks and just played with horses 24/7. I would bring a horse or two and work with them, get pointers, and then help work with all the other training horses and do chores. All at no charge. She is really supportive of all my horse-related and training endeavors. At one point she offered me half of her barn to train out of - I wish I had accepted! But at age 15 with school (taking advanced courses) and my own horses, I just couldn't do it all.

I wish I could explain to her how much she has inspired me, and not only in horses. As a trainer she is always calm and fair to the horse. She is very modest. She knows that you can never stop learning and takes part in clinics and lessons. She also has amazing people skills which is very valuable when working with difficult clients. So she has to be my equestrian idol!

30 Day Challenge - Day 16

Your most recent fall.

Well, first let me start off by saying sorry for being late with my posts. I've been having computer troubles and for some reason my computer right now just doesn't like Blogger. I spent roughly 3 hours at the computer helpdesk yesterday... Sooo much fun! So, I'm writing this on my really awesome, brand-new Android phone . I love it!

Anyways, my most recent fall was at the end of last summer. I've talked a little bit about it on here. Basically what happened was this: Jetta had been under saddle probably a little less than a month. I decided to ride outside the rounded for about the second time ( I don't have an arena at home, I wish! ). We were on the hill and Jetta decided to have an argument with me. I wanted to go one way and she wanted to go the other. She slipped and fell on top of me. I didn't even realize we were falling until we hit the ground and I thought "Oh crap" as Jetta fell onto me. I was sure that she was going to lay in me and probably step on me once she got up. Luckily (I think) she rolled all the way over and off of me, then trotted off. After catching my breath, which had been knocked out of me, I walked over and took of Jetta's tack and set it on the ground. At this point I was super weak and it was obvious that something was wrong with my knees. I hobbled up to the house, which is quite a ways.from the field. I felt I was going to pass out on the way up, I was light headed, losing vision and freaking out because I thought I was going to pass out and I didn't have my phone to call anyone. But I made it to the house and drank some water, changed out of my breeches and started to ice my knees. They weren't getting better, but instead getting super stiff and puffy. I decided I needed to see a doctor and called my mom to met her know what had happened. Of course my whole family was in Washington. I started bawling if course because I was afraid I had torn something in my knee. My grandpa came and got me and took me to urgent care.

Nothing was broken and they didn't think I had torn anything. I sprained my left ankle and MCL in my right knee and bone bruises all around. I couldn't walk for several weeks and I was really glad that it was during summer so I didn't miss school. I didn't ride jetta for a couple months while I healed and then had to wait to bring her up to school.

The moral of this story? Always wear a helmet and have a phone on you when you ride!!!

Somewhat off track, but one thing I remember is a woman I know asked me what happened and I basically told her everything above. Her comment? "Oh, that's why I never ride.outside on grass." I had no idea how to answer. Um, I always ride on grass and in 10+ years this was my first fall. And it was on a very green horse who is super unbalanced and was arguing with me. While the slipperyness if the grass was a factor, it was a very small one!

So yeah, that's my most recent and also my worst fall ever!

PS: if u can see the picture I tried to insert, you can see I can finally bend my knees!

30 Day Challenge - Day 15

If you could say something to any one horse, what would you say?

Hmm...I have to say that I don't really understand this prompt. Just one horse? What would I say? I have no idea! It would be nice though to be able to talk to my horse and have them understand! It would be much easier to be able to explain to them that no, that shadow is not a horse eating monster and that they really needed to load quickly into the trailer because you have to make it to the show on time...

So what would you say, if you could, to your horse?

30 Day Challenge - Day 14

Your dream barn/farm:


Nice! This one I have got covered! I did a very lengthy and highly detailed (probably slightly boring) series of how I hope my barn might look someday. Hopefully.


You can read them here:

Part 1

Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Enjoy!